ACE union at YSU will take time to review contract offer

YOUNGSTOWN

Union representatives for the Association of Classified Employees at Youngstown State University say members will take time to think about a best and final contract offer from the university.

The union, which includes about 300 secretaries, administrative assistants, parking attendants, groundskeepers and others, met Wednesday to review the offer. Union representatives said after the meeting they will not discuss what is in the offer — and said there is no date set yet for a vote on it.

The union has been working without a contract since last August when the previous pact expired.

Hourly pay for ACE members ranges from $12.61 to $30.86.

University trustees last December rejected a fact-finder’s report for a new ACE contract.

That report recommended wage and step freezes but included what’s effectively a “me-too” clause.

The freezes are to be in effect provided “the administration as a whole does not receive a general wage increase during the life of the agreement” and no other striking bargaining unit “receives a percentage increase in wages during the life of the agreement either through negotiations or fact-finding,” the report said.

If any other striking bargaining unit receives a wage increase, “then the ACE bargaining unit shall receive the same wage increase effective on that same date,” it says.

The fact-finder recommended the university be allowed to implement a plan for mandatory furloughs of employees to make reductions.